Sunday, 11 September 2011

Alexander Nevzorov, the journalist and outspoken critic of clerics in the Russian Orthodox Church, has again hit out at homophobic Orthodox clerics accusing them of beating girls who go to gay pride. And the anti-clerical activist has spoken about the KGB’s intelligence network within the Russian Orthodox Church.

“They encourage their blockheads to beat the girls at gay parades, Mr. Nevzorov said in an interview with Sobesednik, published 6 September.

He claimed that among the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church were many former agents of the KGB – and many were gay.

In the late 1980s, on the instructions of the Committee of State Security, Mr. Nevzorov found a network of KGB agents who were embedded in the Russian Orthodox Church as priests. And he discovered a lot of them were gay..

In the Neutral interview, Mr. Nevzorov insisted that the ‘clericalisation’ of society must be resisted – and the church’s attempts to secure its existence from the taxpayer. According to him, religion is purely a private matter, and the church has no right to get support – and even more funding – from the state.

On the subject of the place of gays in Russian society, Mr. Nevzorov told Sobesednik that gays should have the same rights as all other citizens.

“Of course, they carry no danger to society,” he said in the interview. “At least by comparison with those monstrous dangers to society, such as religion’

“If the choice between [gays] and the clergy, you will excuse me, the priests are worse, “ he concluded.